Page 146 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

Pep has other ‘niñas de sus ojos’ (‘girls of his eyes’, as we say in Spanish, a ‘soft spot’, in other
words), and Javier Mascherano is one of them. Masche swapped Liverpool’s starting line-up for
Barcelona’s bench, and in order to get a regular game he had to learn to play as a centre back. ‘What
I’ll take from Guardiola is admiration and love for your profession,’ the Argentinian admits. ‘Going

to train every day and being happy with what you’re doing. He made sure that in my first six months at
Barça, even though I wasn’t playing, I felt like I was learning. I remember that he once showed me a
basketball duel to make an example of how two rivals can end up at loggerheads in a game, and that it
goes beyond the collective battle, the individual battle you can have can also be special. Learning is
constant with Guardiola. That is why he is one of the best coaches in the world, if not the best.’
Clearly, with the continuous success the legend that preceded Pep kept growing. His aura increased
at the same rate as the club’s trophy cabinet. And that would prove to be a seriously inhibiting factor

for some of his players.

Cesc, the return home

From the outside, Barcelona was the reference point of world football. On the inside, players were
working a system that benefited them with a manager who understood them. One who revealed his
knowledge of the game and his faults, his charisma and his preferences, his football eye and his
complex mind. For the Barça players, he was a coach, a very good coach, a special one, even, but a
coach first and foremost. Cesc Fàbregas arrived at Barcelona to work with a legend. And there is

nothing more potentially emasculating than the fear of failure before the altar of a god.
That adoration started early. When Cesc was in the junior team, he got a present from his father: a
Barcelona shirt signed by his childhood idol, Pep Guardiola. Pep had hardly seen him play but was
told by his brother Pere about the talents of the kid. Cesc’s idol wrote in it: ‘One day, you will be the
number 4 of Barcelona.’ Ten years later, that prediction became a reality.
But first Cesc had to emigrate. Fàbregas has always been a home-loving boy and he suffered in his
first years in London. He arrived as a sixteen-year-old after realising the doors to the Catalan first

team were closed for years to come but with the promise that Arsenal were going to develop him.
Wenger was told by one of his assistants, Francis Cagigao, to put Cesc into the first team straight
away, and the French coach didn’t argue with that.
But the return home was always an attractive proposition. The first calls from Barcelona arrived
after they had been knocked out of the Champions League by Mourinho’s Inter and before Spain, with
Cesc’s help, became World Champions in South Africa. In his third season in charge, Pep imagined a

team with Fàbregas in it. In fact, Barcelona went for Silva first but Valencia did not want to get rid of
him just yet. Cesc was more than just another option.
Pep, as soon as he heard that Cesc was willing to sign for Barcelona, got involved in the process.
Director of football Txiki Beguiristain was the one talking to Wenger, but the constant conversations
that took place between the player and Guardiola helped shape the deal.
Pep explained to him the reasons why he wanted to sign him: he saw him as a midfielder who
could give the side the extra ability to score from deep positions, he would make transitions to the

attack quicker and he could eventually take on Xavi’s role as well. But, more importantly, Pep told
him, he should relax, focus on working hard for Arsenal because at some point, sooner rather than
later, the transfer was going to take place.
The player desperately needed that reassurance as Arsenal were not willing to sell their asset in